Keeping people in Leeds safe and sound is a top priority

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Safer Leeds has announced the top three priorities for Leeds in terms of community safety which form part of the partnerships aim to make the city a safe place to live, work and visit.

Over the last twelve months, significant progress has been made by the Safer Leeds Partnership to reduce crime, resulting in a reduction in domestic burglary numbers and improved resident satisfaction rates when tackling anti social behaviour.

The Partnership will be asking the new West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner to support their work when they are elected in November.

Councillor Peter Gruen, chair of Safer Leeds, and Leeds City Council executive board member with responsibility for neighbourhoods, planning and support services said:“The citizens of Leeds want to live in communities that are safe and free from crime, and that is not unreasonable.

“Our three priorities are; reducing crime levels and its impact across Leeds, effectively tackling and reducing anti-social behaviour in our communities and improving safeguarding and reducing vulnerability or individuals, families and communities

“We know that to achieve this, the Safer Leeds Partnership needs to work with local people and across a wide range of agencies rather than in isolation.”

“By working together, the Safer Leeds partners have successfully delivered a wide range of activity to reduce crime, and which demonstrates our commitment to the achievement of the ambition. We want this work to continue into the future, and will be looking for the support of the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner when they come in to office next month.”

Notes for EditorsThe elections for the first Police and Crime Commissioner will take place on Thursday, 15 November 2012. Residents across west Yorkshire will be asked to vote on a number of candidates standing for the region.

To ensure there is a direct link for the West Yorkshire region to the new commissioner, a new Police and Crime Panel has been established. The panel consists of elected members from councils across West Yorkshire and will provide a forum for councillors to constructively challenge and support the work of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Leeds City Council has three councillors sitting on the panel, whose job it is to represent the interests of local residents.

The three priorities for Safer Leeds are;• Reducing crime levels and its impact across Leeds – Continued support to maintain the city’s Burglary Reduction Programme which brings together a number of partners, such as West Yorkshire Police, the Youth Offending Service, Probation, the City Council and the Universities Knowledge project, to target prolific burglary offenders, address offending behaviour, particularly young offenders, and provide crime reduction advice to residents across the city.• Programmes of activity which aim to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders back in to society and away from crime, by tackling issues such as substance abuse and supporting them in to training and on to employment.• Effectively tackle and reduce anti-social behaviour in our communities – Supporting the city’s three multi-agency Anti-Social Behaviour Teams (LASBT), consisting of officers from the Council, Police, the three Leeds ALMO’s and Victim Support, who operate across the city to effectively deal with all types of anti social behaviour. • Supporting the partnerships ongoing commitment to the city’s successful PCSO network.• Improving safeguarding and reducing vulnerability or individuals, families and communities – Work to support the delivery of the Leeds Domestic Violence Action Plan, including new work undertaken by the DASSL project (Domestic Abuse Scheme Safer Leeds), which works with the perpetrators of domestic violence to lessen the risk of harm within families and to reduce repeat victimisation.